Screen Savers Depot

How do I find a compatible Direct 3D devices so I can run my 3d screensavers.?

Public Comments

1. Direct3D is the Microsoft-created 'language' which just about every graphics card speaks these days (though some are better than others, and this is usually directly proportional to their cost!) If you have a graphics card which is even half-decent (so we're talking AGP or PCI-Express here) you'll have no problem running D3D hardware-accelerated screensavers. Some cheaper, or integrated, graphics cards will still support D3D, but they might not have as recent or comprehensive a level of support as more expensive cards posess. If you want to check out the DirectX statistics of your system (including every little detail of your Direct3D environment) then from a Run prompt (Start -> Run) type dxdiag and wait a few seconds for the DirectX Diagnostics applet to show up. If it's the first time you've run it you'll get a box asking whether you want it to check all your drives for Windows Hardware Quality Labs verified, but you can just hit No because if your machine is working fine already, it really doesn't matter :) Hit the Display tab up once the applet's loaded, and bask in all the nerdy glory that is your graphics card's details page. DON'T hit the Disable buttons though in the "DirectX Features" panel, as that will disable your DirectX Acceleration features - which you can't always reenable without a driver reinstall! - so just avoid those buttons ;) The Test DirectDraw and Test Direct3D buttons are useful though if you want to check that hardware acceleration is running ok.